Extending the beavertail on a 75 pre-B

[sberres]

Ok, thanks, I'll check on it.
With the last one (shown in the comparison photo) I blasted the contours and sanded all of the flats including the slide nose to 400. The blasted areas look almost pearlescent/matte black but there's just not a lot of contrast in a normal view.
For this one I'm going to leave the sides of the slide nose blasted for greater contrast. But I think if I blue the whole thing and then resand and brown the flats then I'll be assured of contrast. I'll also have a chance to look at them blued before I commit to browning. 😉

[Earl Keese]

Ok, thanks, I'll check on it.
With the last one (shown in the comparison photo) I blasted the contours and sanded all of the flats including the slide nose to 400. The blasted areas look almost pearlescent/matte black but there's just not a lot of contrast in a normal view.
For this one I'm going to leave the sides of the slide nose blasted for greater contrast. But I think if I blue the whole thing and then resand and brown the flats then I'll be assured of contrast. I'll also have a chance to look at them blued before I commit to browning. 😉

There's only one way to find out. That's what makes it fun.

[sberres]

Ok, thanks, I'll check on it.
With the last one (shown in the comparison photo) I blasted the contours and sanded all of the flats including the slide nose to 400. The blasted areas look almost pearlescent/matte black but there's just not a lot of contrast in a normal view.
For this one I'm going to leave the sides of the slide nose blasted for greater contrast. But I think if I blue the whole thing and then resand and brown the flats then I'll be assured of contrast. I'll also have a chance to look at them blued before I commit to browning. [emoji6]

There's only one way to find out. That's what makes it fun.

You bet!  And we'll check it out as it progresses. In about a month[emoji19]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Underwhere]

I may try adding metal to the beavertail now. After having just finished my Pre-B and realizing my narrow contoured beavertail was too uncomfortable I am considering modifying them.

I suggested cutting a small gap in the beavertail and bending it upwards....then filling in the gap with metal.
I was going to try that but it doesn't extend, it just changes the angle.

So on your attempt. Where did you add metal? You just tried to make it longer? Longer and higher?

[sberres]

  If you look in the first photo where it is clamped into the bucket of water you can see that I just added weld metal to the periphery of the rearmost portion. I made sure to carry it far enough around so that the overall width through the point would leave me enough to work back into the contour I wanted. I'd do a couple of passes, let it cool, do a couple, let it cool, etc... I just took a real rough measurement from the hammer pocket before beginning and sort of arbitrarily decided that I'd like to 1/4-3/8" more by the time I finished. As I added more I started favoring the topside to sort of pre-contour the intended upsweep.
  I didn't want to get too severe with the upsweep as this is going to require a hammer mod/change and I want to make sure that something still works. I don't have it mind to do a bunch of performance mods but if I do it will be the RHK. I'll try bobbing the original one first and it I hate it will probably go with a stock round model. But I do have to leave room for the hammer to run no matter what I end up with. CZ doesn't leave a lot of room for that. I also wanted to ensure that the hammer travel is within the length of the beavertail cuz if it's too close it'll be a potential 'ouch!'.
  In the comparison picture you can see where I'd recontoured the finished example. It feels fine and I'm going to leave it alone but I didn't care for the pointiness of it. The contour is comfortable, I just wanted this one to be closer to a full beavertail. More like my 75b Omega convertible.
  I'd do it again to another but for next time I would grind/wire brush between passes. After a few additions I started getting some oxide bubbling that led to some pits that required touchup during final finishing. If I'd kept it cleaner as I progressed this would have been less a problem.
  After that it was just a question of rough finishing with Dremel drum and files to the shape and you look like you're pretty handy with that whole bit.
  Since you've already shaped yours and removed the flat area that the rear started as you'll have to carefully thicken that up; as is you don't have a lot to work with for extension.
  How good is the heat control on your welder?  If you handle that with as much care as you show for the rest of your mods you'll have some work to be proud of!

[sberres]

Finally! After a rather lengthy break awaiting the weather to warm up enough to work in the garage again, a little vacation timeout, and work obligations, I can now see about getting the bluing going on this one.
  Now, I should have given it either a good acetone wash or hot soapy water bath before the final pretreatment but bypassed those and put it into a boiling solution of TSP for 1/2 hr. Then a quick rinse and into a pot of distilled water for a boiling rinse.
  When I went to take it out I was shocked to see a tiger stripe pattern everywhere!  Inside, outside; everywhere. And a very random pattern. Just dark stripes and spots on the bare steel background. By itself sort of neat but hardly anticipated and I was wondering if I?d have to reblast and polish.
  I theorized that this was perhaps due to not bringing my rinse to a boil prior to immersion and these marks being left by oxidation directly in the water as it heated up. Steel wool blended these marks only minimally. I decided to go ahead with the first acid application and see if these marks still stood out or would blend in, again assuming that this was basically the same reaction I wished to effect with the rust blue solution.  Of course, I didn?t have my phone with me so I didn?t take any photos of it.
  Now, the acid solution went on fine but with the heat and humidity I was rather surprised to NOT see rapid rust formation. But, overnight the layer was beautifully light and uniform; uniformity being far more important than a heavy bloom since the bloom will effectively be carded off at each step anyway.
  Boiling it up the next morning didn?t leave any of the marks showing except on inside frame areas that did not have acid applied. Carding it down showed no traces of streaks or stripes.
  Underwhere, I really admire your patience in assembling the photo diary of your projects. By the time I?m getting to this point the last thing I want to do is to stop and take pics. Especially when my better half is already wondering what could possibly see what is taking so much of my time out there.  I really wasn?t planning to take further pics until it is finished anyway. But this stripe thing sort of caught me off guard and I wanted to mention it.

[Underwhere]

Finally! After a rather lengthy break awaiting the weather to warm up enough to work in the garage again, a little vacation timeout, and work obligations, I can now see about getting the bluing going on this one.
  Now, I should have given it either a good acetone wash or hot soapy water bath before the final pretreatment but bypassed those and put it into a boiling solution of TSP for 1/2 hr. Then a quick rinse and into a pot of distilled water for a boiling rinse.
  When I went to take it out I was shocked to see a tiger stripe pattern everywhere!  Inside, outside; everywhere. And a very random pattern. Just dark stripes and spots on the bare steel background. By itself sort of neat but hardly anticipated and I was wondering if I?d have to reblast and polish.
  I theorized that this was perhaps due to not bringing my rinse to a boil prior to immersion and these marks being left by oxidation directly in the water as it heated up. Steel wool blended these marks only minimally. I decided to go ahead with the first acid application and see if these marks still stood out or would blend in, again assuming that this was basically the same reaction I wished to effect with the rust blue solution.  Of course, I didn?t have my phone with me so I didn?t take any photos of it.
  Now, the acid solution went on fine but with the heat and humidity I was rather surprised to NOT see rapid rust formation. But, overnight the layer was beautifully light and uniform; uniformity being far more important than a heavy bloom since the bloom will effectively be carded off at each step anyway.
  Boiling it up the next morning didn?t leave any of the marks showing except on inside frame areas that did not have acid applied. Carding it down showed no traces of streaks or stripes.
  Underwhere, I really admire your patience in assembling the photo diary of your projects. By the time I?m getting to this point the last thing I want to do is to stop and take pics. Especially when my better half is already wondering what could possibly see what is taking so much of my time out there.  I really wasn?t planning to take further pics until it is finished anyway. But this stripe thing sort of caught me off guard and I wanted to mention it.

Nice to hear there is progress.
Yes pics are difficult to to remember to do and harder to accomplish when you're wearing gloves and have your hands full.

[sberres]

I was happy with the depth and uniformity after about 4 or 5 applications. Gave it a soaking in wd40, good wipedown and warming followed by an overnight soak in liberally applied linseed oil.  Another good warming and wipe down then onto a liberally applied coat of regular gun oil before a final wipe down and reassembly...
  I decided to stick with regular blue and not try anything out of the ordinary in that regard.  Wanting to sort of remain within the context of the utilitarian roots of the CZ I didn?t polish anything beyond 150 grit. I wanted to give this the appearance of a factory finish only since it?s for shootin, not for show. (Not that there?s anything wrong with pretty or shiny!). The lighting here really doesn?t show very well the contrast between the sanded flats and the subdued matte look of the bead blasted areas.
  I trimmed down an old hammer from a previous project that had quite a bit of wear to the grooves. As part of that operation I refreshed the grooves with a file figuring that if I messed it up I could easily replace it with an OEM round one cheaply enough. This one should do ok, I think.
  Yes, rubber grips. I like them. While wood or others look fantastic I have to keep reminding myself that my goal is to remain utilitarian and to not invest any more than is needed to retain that original objective.
  If I come up with some shockingly better photos I?ll post them to highlight some of the differences in finish texture. Otherwise I?m calling this one done. Haven?t fired it yet but with no new internals don?t expect it to have changed. I suppose that actually having a front sight will make it a bit better, now.
  On to the next project, which I think will be a similar refinish job on a Star BM surplus that has some nicks and dings.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SoCal]

Very nice!

[Underwhere]

I was happy with the depth and uniformity after about 4 or 5 applications. Gave it a soaking in wd40, good wipedown and warming followed by an overnight soak in liberally applied linseed oil.  Another good warming and wipe down then onto a liberally applied coat of regular gun oil before a final wipe down and reassembly...
  I decided to stick with regular blue and not try anything out of the ordinary in that regard.  Wanting to sort of remain within the context of the utilitarian roots of the CZ I didn?t polish anything beyond 150 grit. I wanted to give this the appearance of a factory finish only since it?s for shootin, not for show. (Not that there?s anything wrong with pretty or shiny!). The lighting here really doesn?t show very well the contrast between the sanded flats and the subdued matte look of the bead blasted areas.
  I trimmed down an old hammer from a previous project that had quite a bit of wear to the grooves. As part of that operation I refreshed the grooves with a file figuring that if I messed it up I could easily replace it with an OEM round one cheaply enough. This one should do ok, I think.
  Yes, rubber grips. I like them. While wood or others look fantastic I have to keep reminding myself that my goal is to remain utilitarian and to not invest any more than is needed to retain that original objective.
  If I come up with some shockingly better photos I?ll post them to highlight some of the differences in finish texture. Otherwise I?m calling this one done. Haven?t fired it yet but with no new internals don?t expect it to have changed. I suppose that actually having a front sight will make it a bit better, now.
  On to the next project, which I think will be a similar refinish job on a Star BM surplus that has some nicks and dings.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looks good.
I'm also looking to expand to other refinishing projects. I did look into the Star but I didn't think there was the aftermarket support like CZ had.

Any other guns you've considered refinishing?